Feminism Did Not Destroy Atheism
CONTRAPOINTS Contrapoints (VO): When I first went on YouTube around 10 years ago, it was a place where intelligent and educated skeptics, Random Person: GRAVITY... Contrapoints (VO): -free thinkers, Man: in front of a greenscreen ...my cock... Contrapoints (VO): ...and radicals... Man 2: through a bush I'm looking all over for Jesus. Contrapoints (VO): ...could come here to berate hucksters and idiots. Sadly, this golden age has ended and according to of... ThunderF00t, the atheist community's self-appointed leader and champion, it's all the fault of a bunch of uppity women, black people and queers, who came along and ruined everything by demanding that we respect their feelings. This is wrong. Let's talk about why. Man 2: I've looked in the grass, I've looked in the bush. I'm not finding Jesus anywhere. Did Not Destroy Atheism Contrapoints (VO): For viewers who are new around here, I'll provide a little backstory. The New Atheist movement began with the publication of "The End of Faith" in 2004. The movement was centered around four white men each of whom once had something interesting to say, and one of whom once invited me back to his hotel room for a cup of coffee before he f-''bleep. The YouTube branch of the movement was mainly a bunch of nerdy, socially awkward white men, like your humble narrator ''of Contrapoints playing guitar. Our intellects and libidos flourished in the new digital medium. YouTube was a venue for isolated people to connect with each other, carrying on discussions and complaining about things that we couldn't complain about elsewhere. Angry Man: I'm so sick of this fucking idiotic conversation. yelling Angry Man: ... go ahead and say it you fucking idiot. Contrapoints (VO): Since then, many of the communities central figures have stopped making videos, or have moved on to other subjects Green bound and in handcuffs. So what happened? How come New Atheism has faded away? Now I want you to keep in mind that I'm an aging, psuedo-intellectual twink with an alcohol problem pouring a Guinness beer into a mug and I'm not claiming to be smarter than ThunderF00t, but sometimes the simplest answer is the best. New Atheism was a trend and like all trends it died out. As a topic of discussion, atheism is inherently limited. There are only so many different ways you can say that God does not exist. I think when it comes down to it people just got bored. of a BLM protest ''Meanwhile, new social movements have arrived, drawing attention to a different set of problems. Some YouTubers have adapted to the new moral climate, ''of ThunderF00t while others have doubled down on fear and hatred, madness, darkness. I want to argue that the reactionary approach of ThunderF00t and others to feminism is FUCKING SHIT, but first I want to clear something up. I am not a social justice warrior. voice I'm just an independent free-thinking skeptic who looks at the evidence and reaches my own conclusion. fart noise I actually think there's a lot of really bad stuff going on in social justice circles lately. From substituting weird alienating jargon for plain English, to celebrating activists ugliest impulses #killallmen, to crusading against trivial or nonsensical offenses, the single mindedly focusing on some pet social justice issue at the expense of all nuance. But the truth is that you can find people behaving terribly within any movement. On both sides of this debate, and every other, there will be those who act and think in petty, selfish and small minded ways. That's human nature, not feminism. The intellectually responsible thing to do is try and filter all the nonsense out and address only the strongest arguments that each side has to offer. But that's boring as hell, so FUCK IT. Contrapoints (VO): ThunderF00t and his allies claim to be Knights of Reason, championing objectivity, evidence, and difficult truths against a horde of oversensitive crybabies who take offense and retreat to their safe spaces at the slightest whiff of opposition, but ironically the ThunderFeet of the world are often just as eager to take offence. Feminist Rebecca Watson begins one of her videos like this: Rebecca: Hello YouTube, it's been a while. I've missed you and I'm guessing that you've missed me too, because I've heard that if a male atheist on YouTube goes too long without calling a woman a cunt his balls will actually shrivel up and then tuck up inside of him forming what some call a mangina. Contrapoints (VO): And while this is not the height of comedy, take a look at how ThunderF00t responds: ThunderF00T (VO): And that was it? That's how the face of feminism in atheism thinks it's the best way to start a charity fundraiser. Using this passive aggressive victim routine to spit poison at the entire male atheist audience. Contrapoints (VO): He's essentially crying sexism. Jesus, ThunderF00t can't you take a joke? Why are these anti-feminists so oversensitive? And this bit of offense taking is the flimsy beginning of a video with the absurdly overstated thesis that feminism poisons everything.This kind of exaggeration was sort of cute when Hitchens said it, but it has certainly lost it's charm. Really? Feminism poisons everything? Did it poison my coffee? from the 50's "''-How can such a pretty wife... make such bad coffee?"'' "I heard that!" transition Contrapoints (VO): In another video ThunderF00t complains that atheist conferences are filled with politically correct whiners. "I am cisgender, male, poly, and disabled. So I am kind of- I've got a lot of privilege at this panel." "Some of the issues facing the LGBT, like, past marriage, definitely biphobia and panphobia." "I am a trans-woman, atheist and poly and gay." Contrapoints (VO): Honestly ThunderF00t, I don't like listening to this shit anymore than you do. I don't think anyone likes listening to it. Not even a gay, bigender, polysexual, wolfkin. But not all anger is righteous and some feelings are best kept to yourself. Your whole argument is that social justice warriors have ruined atheism by talking about gender issues, which you say you don't care about. Is that why you have made 54 videos about how much you fucking hate feminism god-damn it? This is just not the behavior of a man who doesn't care about gender politics. Compare ThunderF00t's channel, which for the last couple of years has been mostly about feminism, with a little science thrown in here and there, with Rebecca Watson, who vlogs mostly about science. of Anita Sarkeesian ''Even when ThunderF00t chooses the right opponents he still gets it wrong. I'm not a fan of Anita Sarkeesian myself, I think she's a single-minded moral fanatic with a one-note worldview. ''"...pornographic, adolescent boy fantasies." "...ultimate, misogynistic, male fantasy." "...then choose your own patriarchal, adventure porno fantasy." "...adolescent, male power fantasy." Contrapoints (VO): Most of her involve banal, feminism-101-type critiques of video games. An art form that she basically disdains and seems to view only as on opportunity for her to exercise a repetitive tiresome style of generic feminist nitpicking. And yet the central argument of her videos is that video games often contain lazy and sexist writing that excludes women from an important area of cultural life. This seems to me obviously true, regardless of Anita's tedious treatment of the subject, or questionable crowdfunding practices. But look how ThunderF00t responds when faced with Anita's totally obvious and banal evidence that men who make video games like to look at women's butts. ThunderF00t (VO): Most women know that they have wider hips than men, because that's where the babies come out, you know, it's that whole birthing canal thing. Contrapoints (VO): His response is essentially to say "no-uh this is just a scientific objective representation of female anatomy. Men don't like to look at women's butts. Resident Evil 2 is just a scientific documentary about the skeletal anatomy of the female woman." And here I was, about to accuse Anita of stating the obvious. As if we need a pop culture critic reveal the shocking evidence that men like looking at lady butts. music Contrapoints: Jesus, why are we arguing about this? None of this matters. Nothing matters. herself a glass of Jack Daniels ''FUCKKKKK. Contrapoints: The problem with ThunderF00t's approach to this topic is he objects to the worst arguments of two or three feminists on the internet, and then concludes that all feminism poisons everything. He doesn't respond to, or even seem to be aware of, of the body of scientific evidence suggesting that misogyny is real, that workplace discrimination hurts women, and that a culture hostile to women is particularly bad in STEM fields, you know, like the field that he's is in. He doesn't seem to be at all worried about how reactionary his views are, and the company they put him in. There's a huge surge of right-wing commentary on YouTube right now. And ThunderF00t's ideas fit right in with the rest of them. Even with people like this tedious antelope ''TL;DR, Slenderman, the dragonborn TheAmazingAthiest, ''a gay nazi ''Yiannopoulos, the tin man ArmouredSkeptic, a stilted vampire Joseph Watson, a Sumerian monarch of Akkad, a fake university U, and the queen of the internet ShoeOnHead. It seems ThunderF00t is already getting chummy with some of them. Like in this video, where he, The Amazing Atheist and Scotty hold a skype conference call so they can all critique Rebecca Watson's views and physical appearance for 25 minutes. Scotty: I would honestly, just my personal preference, I wouldn't be asking her for coffee. Laughter Contrapoints (VO): Does anyone think these guys seem weirdly intimidated by women who don't agree with them? The Amazing Atheist: ...and I mean like, when did we all agree to just write off people who are like "You fucking groped that bitch's tit when you were drunk." Contrapoints (VO): This sort of thing makes you suspect that this virulent anti-feminism isn't a serious political position at all. It seems more like a web of excuses to cling to ugly and discredited behavior. while zooming in The Amazing Atheist: ...and I mean like, when did we all agree to just write off people who are like "You fucking groped that bitch's tit when you were drunk." Contrapoints (VO): It's too bad, since I think that feminism would benefit from engaging with some earnest and serious criticism. Unfortunately, the brand of anti-feminism represented by ThunderF00t and most of his YouTube allies only makes it more difficult to start a real conversation. And a prominent scientist in a STEM field using his influence and audience to levy tirades against all feminists, well, it's just kind of shitty. mouth fart noise over a poop emoji Contrapoints (VO): If you like this video please like, share and subscribe. You can also follow me on Twitter, Tinder, Tumblr, Grindr, Fistr, Fuckr, Cockr, FetLife, RedTube, and ChristianMingle. puts on lipstick while dramatic music plays Contrapoints: Soon, I will be beautiful. Soon, I will be perfect.